I think we all know that FB is a vast wasteland, and usually a complete waste of time! But every once in a while certain nuggets pop up that really should be preserved for posterity - which FB is NOT designed to do, obviously! (It's mostly a black hole sucking in giant loads of crap!) So, in order to do so, I'm going to post here three photos of DD and the Deltones that were posted in Surf Guitar Appreciation Society FB forum, two (well, it's the same one) on November 6th and one today, and some of the ensuing discussion in response to the first photo.

August 24th, 1963

Maxx Kominsky This is an awesome pic. If you look carefully on Dick's guitar which is now painted gold metal flake, you can see the coat of Burgundy Mist paint.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 7 at 5:09am

Ivan Pongracic This is the first time I've seen The Beast painted in burgundy mist! That's a new one for me. Was this during some brief period between white and gold sparkle? Anybody know?
Like · Reply · November 7 at 3:03pm

Maxx Kominsky More than likely. Dick said he would change the color on his guitar so many times because Dave Myers tried to copy him.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 7 at 3:04pm

Ivan Pongracic John, did you know about this when you refinished your '57 Strat in burgundy mist? (I LOVE burgundy mist!)
Like · Reply · November 7 at 3:05pm

John Blair I'd really like to say "yea, that's why I did it." But, alas...no, I didn't. Interesting that nowhere has Dick ever talked about having his Strat painted in burgundy mist (that I'm aware of). The history always seems to indicate an Oly White Strat that went to Chartreuse Sparkle at the time of the "Beach Party" film. Maybe someone who can reach Dick directly could ask him about this. I'd be interested to know the details.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 7 at 3:10pm

Norman Cowell 12 plus colors under the gold. I have a chip somewhere. I should disect it someday.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 7 at 3:15pm

John Blair That's hilarious. 12+ colors in, what, four years? Why not just have Leo make him lefty Strats in different colors? I'd love to see the list 'o colors, Norm.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 7 at 3:18pm · Edited

Norman Cowell Thom Starr also told me he had a different color ever weekend for a few months. The paint jobs weren't done to perfection like we do today. In fact, I know that dick would put gum on his guitar during a show and then it got painted over. You can still see a lump of gum under the paint.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 7 at 3:28pm · Edited

John Blair Earl Scheib was as ubiquitous as Starbucks is today.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 7 at 3:29pm

Ivan Pongracic Notice BTW (and sorry to be so OCD!), but Dick's Strat was still white (or pearl) with tort guard in Beach Party (August '63), but gold for Muscle Beach Party (March '64).
Like · Reply · November 7 at 6:06pm

John Blair Notice that Nick O'Malley seems to be absent from that photo, which I believe was taken during his East Coast tour in '63.
Like · Reply · November 7 at 3:13pm

Norman Cowell Right on.
Like · Reply · November 7 at 3:15pm

Ivan Pongracic John, didn't DD appear on Ed Sullivan during his East Coast tour? There it appears that his Strat was already gold in color (it's in B&W, but I think it would look darker if it was burgundy mist).
Like · Reply · November 7 at 6:03pm

John Blair I agree. Let's date this stuff:
"Beach Party" was released on 8/7/63
Ed Sullivan was broadcast on 10/6/63
"Muscle Beach Party" was released on 3/25/64
The photo at the top of this thread was taken within days of 10/6/63. It does look like he's got the gold Strat in the b&w Sullivan clip and not burgundy mist (as seen in the above photo). The guitar was definitely gold by the time they filmed MBP in late '63. Maybe he had the guitar painted gold over burgundy mist while in NY, just before the appearance on Ed Sullivan. Dick would surely know.
(How geeky is this? Grown men talking about the color of a guitar from 50 years ago)
Like · Reply · November 7 at 6:45pm

Ivan Pongracic More guitar talk is ALWAYS better than any other alternative!
John, how do you know this: "The photo at the top of this thread was taken within days of 10/6/63." Just curious.
Like · Reply · November 7 at 8:40pm

John Blair Because that was taken while the band was on their East Coast tour, when they appeared on Sullivan.
Like · Reply · November 7 at 8:41pm

Ivan Pongracic Actually, I just noticed something: if you enlarge the photo, the date on the poster behind the band says August 24th! Presumably it's the poster for this show.
Like · Reply · November 7 at 8:42pm

John Blair Bingo. I'd forgotten about that. 8/24/63. The Sullivan appearance was in October. They couldn't have been on tour for four months back East, surely. In fact, the poster notes "One Performance Only." Is it possible the Sullivan appearance was taped in advance?
Like · Reply · November 7 at 8:48pm

Ivan Pongracic Nobody has the exact dates of his east coast tour?
Like · Reply · November 7 at 8:50pm

Ivan Pongracic Checking Stephen MacParland's book "Surf Beat: The Dick Dale Story", he writes that Dick and his band "begrudgingly set out on a six week promotional tour" of the East Coast in July 1963. MacParland says that Dick "on October 6 was seen nationwide on the Ed Sullivan show", and then two paragraphs later writes "Dale's return to the West Coast in late August was a great relief." So, it would definitely appear that the Ed Sullivan show was pre-taped!!
Like · Reply · November 7 at 9:19pm · Edited

Ivan Pongracic Also, John, MacParland says the following about Nick O'Malley: he "remained a stalwart in Dale's band up until the group's East Coast trip in '63; opting to go into the retail clothing business with his mother while attending law school."
Like · Reply · November 7 at 10:48pm

Ivan Pongracic Finally, John, there's a photo in the book credited as coming from you that shows Dick with an older gentleman (his dad?) standing in front of the same poster as in the above photo. Dick's wearing a casual windbreaker jacket, and the poster is not on stage but rather on a board propped up on the ground.
Like · Reply · November 7 at 10:53pm

Joe Gieniec Norm, take a look at the Maroon amps v the wheat Showman. The sizes are more akin to Bandmasters and Bassman amps. No aluminum cones either. I was at D's Wallace St house in CM often from 59-63 and I don't recall him painting the Strat burgundy. When O'malley and Art had their guitars painted burst blue, DD Strat was still white. His buddy painted my Strat Silver MF shortly after after D painted his gold from white.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · November 8 at 6:21pm

Norman Cowell I think Dick said something like he had it gold flake. then another color and then went back to gold flake
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 8 at 6:30pm

Joe Gieniec I am heading to his house next week and I will drill him about the color. I just don't remember him painting the Strat burgundy. Unlike · Reply · 2 · November 8 at 6:33pm

Norman Cowell He said he liked the colors of the dune buggys. I think Manx.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 8 at 6:35pm

Joe Gieniec Answer: Candy apple purple, painted right before he headed on his east coast tour in 63. The flat burgundy seen under the sparkle is primer.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 18 at 9:12pm

Ivan Pongracic Thanks, Joe, very interesting! But why does the guitar look gold sparkle on Ed Sullivan? Did he get it repainted while out east?

Ivan
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Last edited: Dec 19, 2016 21:03:47

You know... this really could be Burgundy Mist. It sure doesn't look metal flake. Burg Mist could appear that 'white' if light was hitting it.

And I would say these are after-market tuners:

Last edited: Dec 19, 2016 20:04:08

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Last edited: Feb 02, 2024 12:33:38

Chris, excellent post! Thanks for adding that! And actually, given what you discovered, it looks the guy really liked to do a burst effect - well, if you look closely at the above photos of DD, it does appear that there's a bit of a burst effect in the finish. It gets darker towards the edges. Very cool!

JakeDobner wrote:

You know... this really could be Burgundy Mist. It sure doesn't look metal flake. Burg Mist could appear that 'white' if light was hitting it.

You know, Jake, you might be right!

And I would say these are after-market tuners:

I would doubt that. There just weren't that many replacement tuners around at that time. I think it's just a picture distortion making it look like that.

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

It's nice for us non Facebookers that some of this stuff gets circulated, otherwise peeps like myself would never have any exposure.

This is some great minutiae! Thanks for passing it along, Ivan.

I recall a first-waver (here perhaps) mention that they thought nothing of repainting their guitars. It looks like this sort of thing went on more that we were aware.

Ivan. do ya' wanna' complicate matters, look at the name on the bass drum.

Brian wrote:

I hope the folks on FB can post this stuff over here so it doesn't get lost. So thanks for doing that, Ivan.

'cause I don't go there.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Glad you all are enjoying it!

SurfBeat wrote:

Ivan, since you asked and you seem to have an interest in early surf music history, (and you are one of the Polish surf pickers, Kurkowski, Wronski and me, all of us from different waves, me the old fart)

Hey Joe! Actually, I'm not Polish. I was born and raised in the former Yugoslavia, now Croatia. Came to the US at the age of 14. But hey, Poles and Croats have a lot in common, besides being Slavs: Catholic, part of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, use the Latin alphabet rather than Cyrillic, etc.

the photo came from Art Munson and Dick says he has one, somewhere, but can't find it, yet!!!

Very cool, good to know!

On a side note, Dick says, as recently as today, that the Strat was pearl white when he was on Sullivan's show,

Well, Dick's memory is definitely not correct here. It's obvious in the b&w clip that it's not white. It's probably that candy apple purple (slight) burst. He probably had that finish on there for the whole east coast tour, and it's likely that guy that Chris brought up above finished the guitar before Dick left for the tour - and then repainted it gold once he returned, right before he appeared in Muscle Beach Party.

but, and if you have an inquisitive mind, I know you aer wondering about......I am trying to get that info. Maybe next week when I head out to 29 Palms.

Great, Joe, thanks very much and good luck!

I vaguely recall it was white when he headed on the back-east tour at the end of summer 1963, but, it has just been to darn long to remember.

The color photo above was clearly taken during the east coast tour, and the guitar is purple there.

I recall painting mine pearl white when he returned,

Jim Messina had his Strat painted pearl white, too, in an homage to DD. I guess it was pretty common back then! Funny, in all the b&w photos it always just looked white, but it's nice to now know that it was actually pearl white. Fender (Japan) had some Strats finished in pearl white back in the mid-'80s, their early attempts at the heavy-metal "SuperStrat" concept popularized by Eddie Van Halen and Charvel guitars at that time. This was the only time Fender officially offered pearl white as a color, a believe. Here's a nice photo of one in that finish:

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Regarding Sullivan, the pickguard is white. The White strat is always photographed with a tortoise guard.